Readers Write

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Steve M sent me an email on the post about the Enola Gay, the name of the plane that nuked Hiroshima, named by its captain, Paul Tibbets, after his mother Enola Gay Tibbets. It is the first in a proposed series of people who Hve given their names to events and inventions for which they may not have wanted to be so remembered. 

Enjoyed the Enola Gay Bytes today Otto. Most informative. Thank you. 

Steve M 

Thanks, Steve. 

By the way: 

As noted in the post, the plane which dropped the atomic bomb (code named Little Boy) on Hiroshima was Enola Gay, accompanied by The Great Artiste and Necessary Evil. 

The plane which dropped the atomic bomb (code named Fat Man) on Nagasaki was named Bockscar, a play on the name of its command pilot captain Frederick C Bock. Bockstar was accompanied by planes Up An’ Atom and Laggin Dragon. 

When the atomic bomb was being developed, there were 2 designs worked on, a gun-type design in which two sub-critical masses would be brought together by firing a "bullet" into a "target", and a plutonium fission through implosion design. The gun-type and implosion-type designs were codenamed "Thin Man" and "Fat Man" respectively. These code names were created by Robert Serber, a former student of Oppenheimer's who worked on the Manhattan Project. He chose them based on their design shapes; the Thin Man was a very long device, and the name came from the Dashiell Hammett detective novel The Thin Man and series of movies. The Fat Man was round and fat and was named after Sydney Greenstreet's character in The Maltese Falcon. Little Boy came last as a variation of Thin Man. 

Some pics: 

A mockup of the Fat Man nuclear device. 

Captain Tibbets and Enola Gay

The Great Artiste

Necessary Evil

Bockscar

Laggin Dragon

Up An' Atom

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Byter David C B also sent me an email: 

Your joke about the German guy and his martini reminds me of the German riddle
What comes between fear and sex?
The answer: Funf.!  

And that joke about the electrician takes me back to my apprentice days when this extract from Hillaire Bellocs "Newdiaate Poem" was our safety warning:

A random touch — a hand's imprudent slip —
The Terminals — a flash — a sound like " Zip! "
A smell of burning fills the started Air —
The Electrician is no longer there! 

Thanks David 

The first comment in turn reminds me of the Chevy Chase’s European Vacation: 

[In Germany, Clark is looking for their relatives house] 

Clark Griswold: What are we looking for? 

Audrey Griswold: Sechs, Dad. 

[Pronounces it as "Sex"] 

Clark Griswold: That'll do Audrey. 

Rusty Griswold: Dad, that's German for six. 

[Unable to find No 6, Clark knocks on a door and seeks directions] 

Clark Griswold: Hello, my family and I were looking for sex. 

German Resident: Schweinhund! 

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Steve M also sent me his comments on the article that saw the reverence for Woodstock as being overrated and unwarranted: 

Good morning Otto,

It’s a shame people don’t get over themselves, and see Woodstock for what it was - a groundbreaking concert over a couple of days with a large audience, mostly hippies, some of whom were off their face with drugs. Perhaps it was a statement by a generation, or maybe it was just a damned good concert with some awesome music?

Steve M 

Another interesting Bytes! 

Thanks, Steve

Btw: 

Classic rock fans in the retirement home